Clock Tower 3
Clock Tower 3 is a PlayStation 2 exclusive survival horror game and the fourth installment in the Clock Tower series. It was developed by Capcom Production Studio 3 and Sunsoft, and published by Capcom on December 12, 2002 in Japan, on March 18, 2003 in North America and on June 25, 2003 in Europe. The story revolves around a girl named Alyssa Hamilton who time travels to the past and is hunted by serial killers. The game is set in 2003 in London, England. Plot Alyssa Hamilton is a 14-year-old girl living at a boarding school. One day she receives a letter from her mother, Nancy, telling her to hide until after her 15th birthday. Alyssa goes against her mother's wishes and returns to their home, which is a boarding house. Her mother is not there and the only person in the house is a shady man called The Dark Gentleman. He offers Alyssa cryptic warnings and clues as to her mother's fate. Alyssa is frightened, but is still determined to find out what happened to her mother. Eventually, her search leads her into her mother's room, where a piano begins to play wildly. Terrified, Alyssa dashes from the room and is transported back in time, to London, circa World War II, 1942, which the Luftwaffe is bombing. While there, she begins to explore the city, which is being constantly bombarded. Her search leads her to a tailor shop, where she witnesses the gruesome murder of a young girl. The crime is perpetrated by a mysterious man wielding a sledgehammer; he notices Alyssa, and begins an obsessed search for her. As Alyssa evades him, she runs into other angry ghosts; by returning particular items to each spirit, she is able to placate them and lay them to rest. Eventually, Alyssa pieces together the mystery: May Norton, a 12-year-old piano-playing prodigy, was brutally murdered on Christmas Eve by a madman with a sledgehammer. While still exploring the tailor shop, Alyssa sees memories from the past; when May's father, William, tells her that he is going to war, she gives him a Pocket Watch as a reminder of his wife and May. While in battle, he is hit by an explosion and lands on a row of barb wire, dying instantly. Alyssa decides to free May's spirit, which is trapped on earth, but on her way to do this, she is confronted by the killer. Her vial of Holy Water becomes a longbow, and she destroys the villain in a shower of golden light. Alyssa gives the pocket watch to May's spirit, who proceeds to play the piano once more. After a short while, May is reunited with her father, and the two thank Alyssa before ascending into the afterlife. At that moment, Alyssa faints. She wakes up in her room, lying on the bed, believing it was a dream. Her childhood friend, Dennis Owen, knocks on the window while hanging on to the windowsill. Alyssa helps him up, in anger, wondering why he would try to enter her residence, and Dennis gives the key to her grandfather's room to Alyssa. While searching through the room, she learns about a surprising secret in her family. The girls in her lineage are known as "Rooders", young women with the supernatural ability to communicate with the dead. She also learns of a ferocious dark power-called an "Entity", which can infect certain humans and drive them to acts of crazed murder. The agony and despair of the souls of the murderer's victims feeds their dark power, and grants the villain - now known as a "Subordinate" - immortality. The Rooders are fated to find and free those tortured souls, breaking the Subordinate's magic and allowing them to be destroyed. These powers peak at the age of fifteen, and wane afterward; therefore, the women in Alyssa's family marry young and quickly bear a daughter. Alyssa realizes that she is a Rooder, and that Sledgehammer was a Subordinate, feeding off of young May's soul. With this new knowledge, she moves back in time again. She enters a house with a blind elderly woman, Dorothy Rand, and her son, Albert Rand. After being blown away by a gust of wind, Alyssa looks at a memory where the man and his mother are murdered viciously with sulfuric acid. During the struggle, the shawl that the son made for his mother drops into a sewer. Files reveal that the murderer, known as the Corroder, was related to the two, the younger man being his cousin. Alyssa finds the shawl and destroys the Corroder, freeing the mother and her son. Upon returning home, Alyssa begins to wonder why her mother wanted her to stay away. Soon, she realizes that the mysterious "Dark Gentleman" hopes to gain immortality by becoming an Entity himself, using the Ritual of Engagement. This dark ritual requires the "heart of a Rooder". When the Clock Tower begins to form, Alyssa is sent to the top of the tower to confront the Dark Gentlemen. He throws her down the tower, sending her to the valve room. Regaining consciousness, she confronts another Subordinate, the Chopper. After temporarily escaping from him, Alyssa looks back at a memory from when she had just been born. Hearing a scream from the stair balcony, Alyssa runs to find her father struggling against her grandfather, Dick. Her father is thrown off the balcony onto an axe head, splitting his head in half. Alyssa denies that her grandfather truly meant to kill her father and engages into a battle with the Chopper, but fails to kill him and is sent to a graveyard. Once there, she meets the spirits of other Rooders who lost battles against the Subordinates. Alyssa fights the Chopper again and, with the help from the Rooder spirits, is able to vanquish him. After completing this mission, Alyssa is warped in time once more to the home of the mysterious Darcy Burroughs, who lived on the very land that Alyssa's house now resides upon. At this point in time it is the location of the titular Clock Tower. Burroughs, obsessed with the secrets of the Entities and Subordinates, hires the homicidal twins, Scissorman Ralph and Scissorwoman Jemima, to murder for him. Burroughs plotted to become an Entity himself; however, his daughter died on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, ruining his plan and driving him insane. He died crushed in the Clock Tower's gears, swearing revenge. Eventually, with the help of Dennis, Alyssa overcomes the twins. Once Alyssa returns to the present day, she discovers that the villain behind her mother's disappearance is her own grandfather, who lived with the pair since Alyssa was a child, and performed extensive research on the Rooder powers. However, he was descended from Burroughs, and was eventually driven insane by the connections between his and his ancestor's situations, and allowed Burrough's evil spirit to fuse with him. He destroys Alyssa's mother and plots to fulfill Burrough's plan with Alyssa's heart; however, Nancy transfers what is left of her own Rooder power into Alyssa, granting her the strength to destroy her grandfather and Burroughs. After she defeats him, she immediately reunites with her mother. The tower then collapses and the evil spell of the Subordinates is permanently lifted. Alyssa awakens in a field of flowers. Clutching her clover pendant, she runs over to hug Dennis nearby. Smiling, she says, "Mum, we did it! We did it, Mum!" Gameplay Spiritual Healing Whenever Alyssa comes across a ghost, it should have a body near it. These ghosts are still here because they are missing a Sentimental Item. Sentimental Items can vary, from Teddy Bears to Engagement Rings and whenever Alyssa returns the item to the spirit, it will be healed and leave the area, leaving behind an item or important piece of info. Holy Water The only weapon Alyssa is armed with is Holy Water from her Sacred Bottle, which is of limited use and can remove blue crests on doors, stun enemies and activate holy portals. The only way to refill the holy water vial is to find a Lions Fountain, or a jar of it. This is the most invaluable piece of equipment Alyssa will get her hands on with the exception of the Sacred Bow. When pressing Triangle, Alyssa will throw a dose in an arch ahead of her. It will stun enemies reaching contact with the splash. Panic thumb|250px|Alyssa panicking and dying. If at any time Alyssa feels scared or nervous, especially when a stalker is chasing her, the Panic Meter at the top left of the screen will increase. The presence/attack of an enemy and lunar moths contribute to Alyssa's Panic Meter. When the Panic Meter is full, Alyssa enters panic mode. During this time, she stumbles around carelessly, though the player can still partially control her movement. She is likely to freeze in her tracks as well, and the player can wiggle the analog sticks to unfreeze her. The player must flee from the stalker or use Lavender Water to get her out of panic mode. Alyssa also cannot use Holy Water while in panic. The player may also use an Invisibility Band to temporarily escape the stalker. If Alyssa is attacked while she's still in her panic mode, she will die instantly and the game will end. However, if the player has Sigil Stones in their inventory, they will give Alyssa an extra chance. Hiding While Alyssa is running away from an enemy, she may come upon a hiding spot indicated by a swirling sigil. If Alyssa can manage to reach one of these spots before an enemy can get their hands on her, then she can stay in these spots until the killer has left the area. Being in a hiding spot does not mean that Alyssa is safe. Sometimes killers can still find her because if the killer is snooping around the immediate area of the hiding spot then the Panic Meter will still increase and if it fills up then Alyssa will scream and reveal her hiding spot, alerting any enemies nearby. Some hiding places are unmarked; for example, Alyssa can crouch and hide behind lamp posts or tables - anything that is obscured from the stalker's perspective. There are also some hiding spots known as Evade Points which can only be used once. There is also a small element of stealth integrated. Interacting with some items causes big bangs or loud noise. These noises may alert the stalker, and they may come after Alyssa. Some are very obvious, like cans on the floor, while some are traps set by the killer. Boss battles Once the Sentimental Item belonging to the greater Spirits whose misery is powering the level's killer is found, Alyssa gains the power to face off against the killer in battle, using a divine Sacred Bow and arrows. Pressing triangle will make Alyssa shoot an arrow. The longer the player holds the button to charge, the more powerful an effect the arrow will have on the killer. Using fully charged arrows, Alyssa can pin them to the ground with golden chains of light. After three chains are placed, Alyssa will launch a final arrow high into the air, which will then turn into a massive Rooder attack. This does a lot of damage, and may kill the enemy. Some of these attacks may not defeat powerful enemies, and the sequence may need to be performed more than once. Green Repellant Arrows do damage and knock the enemy back, giving Alyssa some time to run back a bit and charge a golden arrow up. These are very helpful in boss battles. Red Binding Arrows are equivalent to the charged up golden arrows, and have the same effect. They bind the enemy with one golden chain. Extras Unlockables After the player has completed Clock Tower 3, there are a number of new options: # There is a new option on the Title Screen called Theater Mode. The player can view every cutscene and also production art. To access the art gallery, press R1 when in the cinema viewer. # A Wardrobe Key will be in the inventory to unlock the wardrobe in Alyssa's room and allow her to wear costumes. In the North American version, the costumes consist of blue cowgirl outfit, the Rooder toga, a set of roman armor, a black and rather revealing club type outfit, and Alyssa's standard school uniform. Clear mode Finish the game to unlock Clear mode. This mode is a more difficult version of the game where enemies have more powerful weapons and Alyssa's panic goes to full when surprised. Reception Clock Tower 3 received mixed but generally good reviews. It was praised for its good graphics and unique soundtrack, as well as many of the game's horror elements and atmosphere. However, many reviewers found the gameplay to be difficult and noted its wild storyline and characters. Clock Tower 3 is the first Clock Tower game to not feature multiple endings, thus the game is much more linear than previous installments which, in turn, affects the game's replay value. Asides from a harder mode, the game's only unlockables include costumes and a theater mode/art gallery. Some complained that the villains felt "cartoonish". As well, the game draws more inspiration from "fantasy" elements such as time traveling, Rooders and Entities. While previous protagonists had to use their wits in order to evade stalkers, Alyssa can sprinkle holy water, turn invisible, and use Sigil Stones as "extra lives". She can also use a magical bow and arrows during boss battles, which can be seen as "unrealistic" in a slasher-type game where the protagonist is an ordinary human who is always vulnerable to danger. Category:Games Category:Clock Tower 3